Gliederung

Time spent in traffic was identified as triggering myocardial infarctions based on the KORA myocardial infarction registry. We present here an extended analysis doubling the time of data collection.

Patients surviving a myocardial infarction were interviewed after being transferred to the general wards within hospitals of the KORA study region. Interviews assessed activities during the four days preceding the onset of symptoms of the myocardial infarctions and included information on time spent in traffic and time spent outdoors. Conditional logistic regression models were used to estimate the effects of activities within the hours t=1 to 6 before symptom onset with control periods selected 24+t to 72 hours before symptom onset controlling for the hour of the day.

1466 myocardial infarction survivors age 25 to 74 were interviewed between 1999 and 2003. Being in traffic was associated with the onset of myocardial infarction one hour later (odds ratio (OR): 3.3, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.7 to 4.0, p<0.0001) for patients within the KORA region. Time spent outdoors was associated with an increased risk for the onset of myocardial infarction one hour later (OR: 3.1, 95% CI: 2.4 to 4.1, p<0.0001).

The extended analyses confirm the associations between time spent in traffic and the onset of myocardial infarction as reported earlier. In addition, time spent outdoors is a novel factor associated with triggering of myocardial infarctions which may warrant further attention.